Intelligent industrialisation of the data centre

Being the most cost effective, secure, flexible, and green datacenter in Europe - that is the vision of Lefdal Mine Datacenter (LMD) in Norway. Opened on 10th May 2017, the datacenter has completed the build out of Phase 1, and a cooling capacity of 45 MW is ready for use. The mountain hall facility sets a new standard for the datacenter industry. The large space, combined with modular design enables a fast time to market. The combination of cheap and renewable power leads to predictable low cost for customers. As strategic partner and technology partner, Rittal provides its preconfigured, modular and scalable infrastructure for this unprecedented datacenter project.

  • Friday, 19th May 2017 Posted 7 years ago in by Phil Alsop
Lefdal Mine Datacenter (LMD) – one of Europe’s most efficient, greenest and most secure datacenter – has opened in a grand opening ceremony with representatives from politics and business on May 10th 2017.
On the occasion of the opening, Dr. Karl-Ulrich K?hler, CEO of Rittal International, said: “The ongoing digital transformation will undoubtedly lead to higher demand of datacenter capacity and in consequence to highly efficient industrialization of datacenter infrastructure and services, in other words - intelligent standardization. We are a strong believer and experts of highly efficient industrialization. This is in the DNA of our company since 1961, the year Rittal was founded.“
Europe’s greenest datacenter
Located on the west coast of Norway, the 120,000 square meter big datacenter operates exclusively on renewable energy. In addition to this, it is cooled by water from the nearby fjord. The energy costs are correspondingly low and the system achieves a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) below 1.15.
Flexible scalable solutions
At the same time the flexibility at LMD is unique, in terms of available space and different technical solutions. The large space and capacity, 16 meters roof height in the mountain halls and the related logistics allows different cost effective scalable solutions. LMD has a potential of 120.000 m? of net whitespace and 200+ MW IT capacity, delivered in container solutions or traditional white space. This enables customers to get a “pay as you grow” model, with no risk of paying for capacity not needed.
“We can facilitate all known concepts for white space solutions and the facility structure allows a streamlined solution for containers in different shapes and sizes including customized power density, temperature, humidity, and operational equipment. Thanks to our technology partners Rittal and IBM for their contribution along the entire build-out process, and for providing their global leading solutions and services into our ecosystem.”, explained J?rn Skaane, CEO at Lefdal Mine Datacenter.
Cost-effective and fast time to market
As the fourth industrial revolution calls for flexible IT resources, Rittal’s standardized datacenter designs and containers allow the fast, flexible implementation of scalable IT infrastructures within six weeks.
“The Lefdal Mine Datacenter project is impressively demonstrating how convenient it can be to establish a secure, efficient and cost-effective datacenter in a very short time. This solution’s high degree of standardization combined with the location advantages of the western coast of Norway result in an excellent TCO analysis. Significant cost savings of up to 40% can be achieved compared to a cloud datacenter for example in Germany.”, explained Dr. Karl-Ulrich K?hler, CEO of Rittal International.
High secure facility
In addition, Lefdal Mine Datacenter will be one of Europe’s most secure datacenters. The data is protected inside electromagnetic pulse (EMP) secure mountain halls. The facility has access from two single points of entry, offering a high level of natural security and access control. The design and documentation of infrastructure installations are highly confidential as there is specially trained security staff onsite 24/7. Hence, it meets all Tier III requirements.
Solutions for all IT scenarios
Over the next months, Lefdal Mine Datacenter will gradually start to move in customers. iNNOVO Cloud, a German cloud provider, will be one of the first international customers to move in with high density IT containers. The first installation will be up and running in September serving both Norwegian and international clients with their cloud portfolio including HPC as a Service.
Furthermore, IBM will offer their Resiliency Services from Lefdal Mine Datacenter.